Accent Group provided a trading update and details around the planned closure of 17 stores operating under the Glue Store banner. The company highlighted strong second half like-for-like sales trends at 4.1%. This strong performance into the second half of the year was ahead of consensus at -0.4% for 2H24e. The store closures will lower group sales but we lift our gross margin expectations and see improved cost of operations from exiting a portion of the higher cost Glue Stores.

City Chic’s exit of Avenue and capital raising conclude an incredibly painful experience of global ambition and then retreat. The City Chic brand has a strong following in Australia but has been impacted by excess inventory. The company is addressing its cost base but more savings will be needed to restore profitability. Moreover, store openings seem unlikely at this stage given the poor sales productivity.